The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War - David Halberstam

Written by David Halberstam
Read by Scott Brick
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Books on Tape /Random House
Release date: September 25, 2007
Duration: 33:42:42

Up until now, the Korean War has been the black hole of modern American history. THE COLDEST WINTER changes that. David Halberstam gives us a masterful narrative of the political decisions and miscalculations on both sides. He charts the disastrous path that led to the massive entry of Chinese forces near the Yalu River, and that caught Douglas MacArthur and his soldiers by surprise. He provides astonishingly vivid and nuanced portraits of all the major figures, including Truman and Eisenhower; Kim Il Sung and Mao Zedong; and General MacArthur. At the same time, Halberstam provides us with his trademark highly evocative narrative journalism, chronicling the crucial battles with reportage of the highest order.

At the heart of the book are the individual stories of the soldiers on the front lines who were left to deal with the consequences of the dangerous misjudgments and competing agendas of powerful men. We meet them, follow them, and see some of the most dreadful battles in history through their eyes. THE COLDEST WINTER is contemporary history in its most literary and luminescent form, and it provides crucial perspective on the Vietnam War and the events of today. It stands as a lasting testament to one of the greatest journalists and historians of our time, and to the fighting men whose heroism it chronicles.

A review - The late, great David Halberstam has written a virtuoso tribute to “the forgotten war”: Korea, early 1950s. This is much more than a history of the year in which the Chinese entered the war and almost pushed the South Koreans and Americans into the sea. Personalities and events parade across the narrative: generals, presidents, common soldiers, politics, and battles. And herein one also perceives why Scott Brick, with his middle-American voice, is recognized as such an outstanding narrator. An effective reader should disappear from a book such as this, leaving the listener without distraction. But Brick manages to add to the narrative with the increased intensity of his reading at all the appropriate moments. Nothing he does subtracts; everything he does adds.

Personal note – next to the late Frank Muller (All Quiet on the Western Front) no one narrates the futility of war better than Scott Brick. This is a very long book about a very long war that had no formal ending.